Crushers are utilized in many applications for crushing hard material, such as rocks, ore etc. One type of crusher is the gyratory crusher, which has a crushing head which is forced to gyrate inside a fixed crushing shell.
The crushing of pieces of rock, ore, etc., causes, by nature, a varying load on the crusher. During the operation of a crusher it is desirable that the crusher operates in such a manner that premature break-down of the crusher is avoided.
WO 2005/007293 describes a method of controlling a crusher. The instantaneous load on the crusher is measured. For each of a number of time intervals, a highest pressure is identified. Based on a number of such measured highest pressures, a mean peak pressure is identified. The operation of the crusher is based on a comparison between the measured mean peak pressure and a set point.